Our Glib, Cynical, Neurotic Elite

Good, clear-thinking and righteous stuff from Swarthmore's Camille Paglia quoted in the WSJ:

Jobs, and the preparation of students for them, should be front and center in the thinking of educators. The idea that college is a contemplative realm of humanistic inquiry, removed from vulgar material needs, is nonsense. The humanities have been gutted by four decades of pretentious postmodernist theory and insular identity politics. . . .Having taught in art schools for most of my four decades in the classroom, I am used to having students who work with their hands—ceramicists, weavers, woodworkers, metal smiths, jazz drummers. There is a calm, centered, Zen-like engagement with the physical world in their lives. In contrast, I see glib, cynical, neurotic elite-school graduates roiling everywhere in journalism and the media. They have been ill-served by their trendy, word-centered educations.

Jobs, jobs, jobs: We need a sweeping revalorization of the trades. The pressuring of middle-class young people into officebound, paper-pushing jobs is cruelly shortsighted. Concrete manual skills, once gained through the master-apprentice alliance in guilds, build a secure identity. Our present educational system defers credentialing and maturity for too long. When middle-class graduates in their mid-20s are just stepping on the bottom rung of the professional career ladder, many of their working-class peers are already self-supporting and married with young children.

The elite schools, predicated on molding students into mirror images of their professors, seem divorced from any rational consideration of human happiness.

Say It Ain't So, Joe

[Posted By Jake]

Undoubtedly, the strongest, and some might say the only, qualification for public office for former Admiral Joe Sestak is his military record. So it stands to reason that our ambitious Congressman should be an influential voice on Naval affairs in Washington.

October 12, 2010 will mark the 10th anniversary of the suicide bombing of the USS Cole by Muslim extremists. Seventeen young men serving their country in the United States Navy died that day. The al-Qaeda coordinator of this tragedy is in custody and the military is ready to proceed to trial.

But the Obama Administration has "shelved" the prosecution. They will not allow a military trial until their liberal, politically-correct sensibilities are satisfied that civilian trials are available for the balance of the Gitmo terrorists. "It's politics at this point," said one military official on the condition of anonymity.

Can this be true? Our own Admiral standing idly by while this killer evades a well-deserved reckoning because of political expedience? If Joe does not stand up for the men who sacrificed their all, then what does that say about his character and independence? We know he is a 96.6% Nancy Boy, but you would think he could spare some loyalty for the brave men of the USS Cole. Say it ain't so, Joe.

Bambi vs. Godzilla

Barney's Immodest Proposal

CATO's David Boaz and his modest proposal:

“Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said Tuesday that he will hold a hearing this fall to examine whether regulators are being tough enough in curbing pay practices at Wall Street firms that can lead to excessively risky practices,” writes Zachary Goldfarb in the Washington Post.

Hmmm. “Pay practices that can lead to excessively risky practices.” Since Barney Frank entered Congress, federal spending has risen from $590 billion in 1980 to $3.7 trillion this year. (U.S. Budget, Historical Tables, Table 1.1) The annual deficit has risen from $74 billion to $1.5 trillion. Gross federal debt rose from $909 billion to $13.8 trillion — and to over $15 trillion next year. (Table 7.1) And all this without a major war or depression during those 30 years.

Maybe we should adjust pay practices for members of Congress to give them an incentive to avoid risky, unaffordable, out-of-control borrowing and spending..

So Frank and his colleagues will hold a hearing this fall. Well, so will voters.

The solution to bad congressman is to vote them out of office. The solution to bad businessmen is for their shareholders to fire them on to let them go out of business.

Slip Sliding to Safety

For the second time in a month, a JetBlue emergency slide is activated.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The tires of a JetBlue airplane caught fire Thursday during a hard landing in Sacramento that left 15 people with minor injuries and sent passengers down emergency slides to escape the aircraft.

Agency board members voted to put longtime director Carl Greene on leave while it investigates the harassment claims and the secret settlements.

Greene has been mostly unreachable since news broke two weeks ago that the $350,000-a-year housing executive had fallen months behind on his mortgage and that the IRS had placed a $52,000 lien on his luxury home. Neither staff nor board members could reach him for days.

His lawyer disclosed Thursday that he has checked into an out-of-state medical facility to be treated for undisclosed medical problems. Greene, 53, is expected to remain there through mid-September, lawyer Clifford Haines said.

"Carl's a very proud man," said Haines, who described Greene as distressed by the allegations. "I have yet to hear anybody make a connection between any of the things that have occurred and his performance."

Hmmm. Undisclosed medical problems? Is there an operation where one can have excess pride removed?

The Last Refuge

It is a measure of the corruption of liberal thought and the collapse of its self-confidence that, finding itself so widely repudiated, it resorts reflexively to the cheapest race-baiting (in a colorful variety of forms). Indeed, how can one reason with a nation of pitchfork-wielding mobs brimming with "antipathy toward people who aren't like them" -- blacks, Hispanics, gays and Muslims -- a nation that is, as Michelle Obama once put it succinctly, "just downright mean"?

The Democrats are going to get beaten badly in November. Not just because the economy is ailing. And not just because Obama over-read his mandate in governing too far left. But because a comeuppance is due the arrogant elites whose undisguised contempt for the great unwashed prevents them from conceding a modicum of serious thought to those who dare oppose them.

The Smug Ignorance of Bill Maher

In 2006, Bill Maher outted Republican Ken Mehlman as gay claiming he was a hypocrite for being against gay marriage, which he and other liberals equate with "gay bashing."

Questions:

Is it not possible to be a gay man and not believe in gay marriage?

Does Bill Maher know what hypocrisy is? Because he sure doesn't know what Brazil uses for fuel.

UPDATE: Mehlman, it turns out, has recently come out in support of gay marriage. Some Republicans do, other don't. Some Democrats don't either, having not been persuaded that changing the definition of marriage is wise thing to do. Being black and not being supportive of Affirmative Action doesn't make one a hypocrite either. But that doesn't stop some liberals from accusing African American conservatives of being insufficiently black. Nice.

Toomey Clingy Like Some Other Pa. Voters

Would that be in the same way some people in Pennsylvania "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."?

Radio Times for More Vacation

Given the economic times, the joblessness and insecurity, it was almost funny listening to the two guests on yesterday's Radio Times attempting to make the case for government-mandated paid vacation time.

Americans, the audience was told, work way too hard with not nearly enough time off to relax and recreate. This is certainly true compared to many European countries that make it against the law for companies not to give workers paid vacation.

According to JOHN SCHMITT from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, author of "No Vacation Nation" and JOHN deGRAAF, national coordinator of a group called Take Back Your Time, one in four Americans have no paid vacation. This is a travesty and the way they talk about it that make it sound almost as if it were a human rights violation.

In Europe, workers get an average of 30 days off a year. In the U.S. workers get only 9 paid holidays. Not having having legislated/mandated paid vacation puts America in the company of some of the most backward nations on earth; Burma, to name one.

Europeans and Aussies are famous for taking extended holidays and traveling the world. Why can't America be more like them? After all, people who take more vacations are happier, and more productive, according to studies cited by Schmitt and deGraff. Don't we want our citizenry to be happier and more productive?

Listening to them yak, citing statistics, and being lobbed softball questions by substitute host Tracey Matisak (in for the vacationing Marty Moss-Cohane) was charming. But their arguments, though seductive, are downright foolish, especially for legislated mandates. The costs involved would be significant, especially on small business owners.

When Matasak finally asked about small business owners who might like to offer paid vacations for their workers but didn't feel they could afford it, one of her guests suggested as long as all their competitors were required to offer the same thing, the "playing field" would be level.

Such is the faith that these sort of people have in government to properly command the private economy and the behavior of American citizens for their own good.

First healthcare, now vacations.

Believe me, I have nothing against paid vacation time. I get it and I take it. But, I accept the trade-off of being paid a lesser salary for that benefit. The same is true with my health insurance. My company pays half of it and it's a form of compensation (on which I don't have to pay taxes). Besides, we (the unionized employees of this newspaper) negotiated a contract that gives us paid vacation time, mostly in lieu of higher salaries. Plenty of non-unionize companies offer paid vacation time, just not as much as guys like Schmitt and deGraff think is appropriate.

What makes this "issue" so silly right now is that it is the high costs associated with hiring people that is keeping so many of them unemployed. With Obamacare just passed, a law that requires businesses to buy health insurance for their workers or PAY A $2,000 (per year, per employee) FINE to the government, the cost are growing higher than ever.

And these guys want to add to those old and new costs, another one. And somehow, this WON'T cost the economy jobs? The lack of thinking about the consequences of their idea is quite incredible.

One more thing, envying European level's of vacation time is understandable. But they have consequences too. High unemployment and poor economic growth. Given all that, the social benefits mandated in Europe are quite unsustainable.

And one last thing... Remember that heat wave that hit France a few years ago (2003)? Thousands of elderly nursing home and hospital patients died, in part because so many healthcare workers were on vacation.

I missed the end of Radio Times yesterday. I wonder if anybody brought that up.

Nice Catch...

E-Mail of the Week...

From: Keith Layman To: gspencer@delcotimes.comSubject: Mosque Column

Gil,

I applaud you on your most recent column "Know your Ground Zero mosque" (Aug. 22). Your insights have certainly pierced the (sic) at the heart of this issue and raised your readers' understanding of this story from the merely idiotic to sheer imbecilic. While some writers use their positions to raise the level of community discussion, you have pandered to the lowest rungs of your readership (and we're talking the Delco Times here, a rag for which literacy is just barely a prerequisite skill).

You may be thinking to yourself, "Wow! look at all the comments and emails my column generated - I must be a genius!" However, I would suggest that should the Delco Times publish a picture of a hemorrhoidal ass in place of your column, it would illicit (sic) a similar volume. You must be proud.

Sincerely,

Keith Layman

To: Keith LaymanFrom: gspencersubject: Reply

Keith,

A quick Google search reveals you to be some sort of public school teacher. Well, I always enjoy hearing from my betters. Your note, though, would be far more impressive if you knew the difference between "illicit" and "elicit." You know, especially after trashing the "literacy" of our readers.

At least you spelled "hemorrhoidal" correctly. That's something you can be proud of.

Tolerance for Me but Not for Thee

Over at Patterico's Pontifications, a cop who writes under the nom de plume of Jack Dunphy responds to a story in the L.A. Times:

“New York mosque controversy worries Muslims overseas.”

So reads the headline to a story running in Monday’s Los Angeles Times. And the story that accompanies it is, as one would expect, every bit as fatuous as the headline. It is yet another in a long series of attempts by our sophisticated betters in the national media to shame those of us who would prefer not to see a mosque rise in what would have been the shadow of the World Trade Center towers. That those towers were reduced to rubble nine years ago, and that nearly 3,000 Americans met unspeakably cruel deaths that day at the hands of terrorists who committed their barbarism in the name of Islam, well, these are unpleasant memories that live on only in the minds of people so backward and unenlightened that they refuse to allow any figurative thumbs to be jammed into their eyes.

It’s growing ever more tiresome to hear defenders of the Ground Zero Mosque lecture us on blessings of the First Amendment. Yes, they have the right to build it there, and few would argue otherwise. But just as a man has the right to tell his wife that her new hairstyle makes her look like a Pekingese, that her cooking is unfit for man or beast, and that, yes, those pants do indeed make her look fat, the prudent husband keeps such opinions to himself in the interest of harmonious domestic relations. One might also have the right to burn an American flag outside the local VFW post, but one must accept the risk of being labeled a boor for doing so. (And being labeled a boor is probably the best thing that would happen to anyone so unwise as to exercise his rights in such a fashion.)

Americans are the last people on earth who need to demonstrate their tolerance for diversity of religious thought. It’s a shame that the Ground Zero Mosque controversy is causing such worry among Muslims overseas, but until there’s a synagogue in Mecca, I’m not going to lose any sleep about it.

And Now a Word from Feisal Abdul-Rauf...

"The Islamic method of waging war is not to kill innocent civilians," he (Abdul-Rauf) told the Herald. "But it was Christians in World War II who bombed civilians in Dresden and Hiroshima, neither of which were military targets."

Now that's a charitable view of history. Whenever Muslims kill innocent civilians, it has no relation to Islam. The Muslim conquest of India, the bloodiest conflict in history, in which 80 million people were killed? Not Islam. Sept. 11 attacks? Not Islam. Hamas lobbing thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians? Well, Feisal refuses to go on record condemning Hamas even when asked point blank.

But when America's secular government stopped the atrocities of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, it was really all about Christians killing civilians. America culpa!

Hotter, Uglier!

The mosque debate is getting hotter and uglier. Reasonable people can disagree about whether it is inappropriate and/or insensitive to build an Islamic community center and mosque 500 feet from where jihadists in the name of Islam killed almost 3,000 people on 9/11.

But reason seems to be losing.

Mosque mastermind Feisal Abdul-Rauf "told a gathering Sunday at the U.S. ambassador's residence in the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain that he took heart from the dispute over the mosque, saying "the fact we are getting this kind of attention is a sign of success."

Ah yes, success! Americans at each other's throats. People are demonstrating in the streets, screaming and yelling at each other. Outrage and feelings hurt on both sides.

As Victor Davis Hanson said last week "Almost everything about the proposed Ground Zero mosque was cynically brilliant."

Change Your Shirt

A Mile in Afghan Shoes

The incomparable P.J. O'Rouke went to Afghanistan recently and came back an "expert." His Weekly Standard piece is full of wit, wisdom and discernment, including this gem:

What if some friendly, well-meaning, but very foreign power, with incomprehensible lingo and outrageous clothes, were to arrive on our shores to set things right? What if it were Highland Scots? There they go marching around wearing skirts and purses and ugly plaids, playing their hideous bagpipe music, handing out haggis to our kiddies and offending our sensibilities with a lack of BVDs under their kilts. Maybe they do cut taxes, lower the federal deficit, eliminate the Department of Health and Human Services, and the EPA, give people jobs at their tartan factories and launch a manhunt for Harry Reid and the UC Berkeley faculty. We still wouldn’t like them.

Here. Here. Beware the colonialist Scot. Any attempt to build an Scottish Community Center near Ground Zero should be met with alarmed contempt.

Staggering Fecklessness in Lower Manhattan

Meanwhile, putting aside the controversy over the mosque, John Podhoretz attempts to gin up disgust for the fact that after 9 years there is no 9/11 Memorial at the Ground Zero site.

It's a fair cop. But then the amount of time it takes anything to get built these days when politicians get heavily involved is staggering. And not just in New York City. I'm thinking about the Haverford Hospital Site and the Town Center at Ellis Preserve.

UPDATE: More and more it is looking like all this hubbub is about a project that is quite unlikely to ever get off the ground. Politico.com is reporting that as of two years ago, the Cordorba project had all of $18,255 raised.

The group also lacks even the most basic real estate essentials: no blueprint, architect, lobbyist or engineer — and now operates amid crushing negative publicity. The developers didn't line up advance support for the project from other religious leaders in the city, who could have risen to their defense with the press.

The group’s spokesman, Oz Sultan, wouldn’t rule out developing the site with foreign money in an interview with POLITICO — but said the project’s goal is to rely on domestic funds. Currently, they have none of either.

It has occurred to me that the whole thing is a P.R. stunt that may or may not have backfired depending on the motives of the promoters.

Hate Crime? Schmate Crime! But Get a Gun!

It is a sad but interesting story about a 3 a.m. home invasion. The father was pistol whipped and more than $23,000 in cash was taken.

The headline raises the question whether this was a "hate crime," driven by antipathy for Asian people. The answer, though, is almost assuredly it was not. But that mean that Asian-Americans shouldn't be concerned about being targeted by such criminals.

The reason? Cultural and ethnic stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason; often - not always, but often - they reflect a general cultural truth about that group.

In the case of Asian Americans, the stereotype is hard-working, hard studying, strong families and savers.

Criminals are not the dumbest creatures on the planet. The look for victims who won't give them much trouble. Victims who are unarmed and appear unlikely to fight back. Unless I miss my mark, this was not a hate crime but a crime of planned opportunity. But one, in which, the ethnicity and cultural traits of the victim played a part.

The solution to changing this stereotype. Asian American business and homeowners ought to start arming themselves for protection. As a group, Asians are among the most law-abiding citizens in the country. They need to realize that as much as the police would like to protect them, they can't. It is up to individual men and women to have the means to protect their families. That means having a firearm in the house and knowing how to use it.

Game On

When You're In a Hole, Quit Digging!

Charles the K obliterates the left's arguments for the provocative Ground Zero mosque.

Ground Zero is the site of the most lethal attack of that worldwide movement, which consists entirely of Muslims, acts in the name of Islam and is deeply embedded within the Islamic world. These are regrettable facts, but facts they are. And that is why putting up a monument to Islam in this place is not just insensitive but provocative.

Smart Democrats are sick of having this millstone hung around their necks. If leftists keep this up, Republicans can giggle their way to November.

That Rascally Imam

He duped liberals and conservatives into this war of words and there was no bigger dupe than the President of the United States.

Finally, we come to the greatest irony of all, the politically suicidal entry of President Obama into the fray. After himself invoking Cordoba for just the sort of therapeutic mythmaking that Imam Rauf is far better at, how could the president now stay out? Rauf knew that he had a legal right to build the mosque, that the cultural elite would rally to his defense, that the right wing would go ballistic, and that his “outreach” would be deeply offensive to the vast majority of Americans of all faiths.

In other words, Rauf is just the sort of Venus’s flytrap that would lure in the unthinking multicultural, multi-everything president, eager to score political points with his omnipresent tolerance, and apparently having learned nothing from his disastrous beer summit and his declaration that clinging Arizonans would arrest Mom and Pop and the kids as they went out for ice cream. Obama could not resist weighing in, and once more he ended up looking the law-professor fool, who in sonorous tones reminds Americans, on the one hand, of the banal (it is perfectly legal to build a mosque near Ground Zero), while, on the other, he plays the Chicago legislator who voted present whenever he could (to a Muslim audience, he kinda, sorta wanted it built; to an American audience the next day, he kinda, sorta really didn’t).

The Vision Thing

Moving the Mosque

A pretty effective video on why the proposed Ground Zero mosque should be moved elsewhere. Granted the appeal is based on the emotions of the people affected by the horror and loss of 9/11. But why shouldn't their strong feelings be respected?

To the movers and shakers behind the mosque it is reasonable to say, "Go ahead and offend these people. But do so knowing you lose the goodwill of millions of fair-minded Americans who resent having their tolerance and hospitality taken for granted."

UPDATE: Roger Kimball weighs in on the effort to enlist former President George W. Bush on the side of the mosquers. After 9/11 W. sure made an effort to show his support for American muslims and their rights. But as Roger points out, he muddied the waters a bit by claiming Islam in English means "peace," when in fact, it means "submission." Big difference there.

Roger sez:

My own view, which I’ve stated in this space before, is that Islam is fundamentally incompatible with “foundational Western values like free speech, the separation of church and state, and equality under the law. Such things are not simply missing from Islam: they are positively repudiated by Islam.”

In the September issue of The New Criterion (out soon at www.newcriterion.com), I weigh in on the controversy over Ground Zero Mosque, noting that, although it may soon recede from the headlines, it raises some very large issues concerning tolerance, the relation of rights to tolerable behavior, and the compatibility of Islam with liberal democracy. It also, as Andrew C. McCarthy noted at NRO, “powerfully demonstrates” the growing divide between the American people and the progressive ruling class.”

One side endeavors to defeat the enemies of freedom and tolerance. The other seeks to accommodate them, believing, McCarthy observes, that “they are moving us toward a better, smarter policy that will reduce the threat by making our enemies like us better.”

The Mosque and Timothy McVeigh

As far as that Ground Zero mosque is concerned, my print column is up.

On an earlier post, a reader, Paul L., asks this question.

I understand both sides of this issue. Here is my question: I believe that the Oklahoma City Federal Bldg. has been declared "a sacred" site and a monument park established. Since, McVeigh was a fundamentalist Christian would it be insensitive to build a Church across the street from the site?

Now, I don't know what led Paul to believe that Timothy McVeigh was a fundamentalist Christian because he wasn't. He was a lapsed Catholic, who after his arrest, claimed "Science is my religion."

But, it is still an interesting question to consider.

Suppose McVeigh had been a fundamentalist Christian and some extremist Christian group, like, for instance, the Westboro Baptist Church, bought a piece of property next door to Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum and wanted to name it the Timothy McVeigh Church of the Holy Redeemer.

It is hard to imagine there wouldn't be something of a controversy about that. It is even harder to imagine that liberal politicians would come out in favor of Westboro Baptist's right to build such an offense so close to a place where so many innocent people were killed. More likely they would be expressing the same sort of outrage many Amnerians are feeling about the Ground Zero mosque.

I would still acknowledge Westboro Baptist's right to build its church. But I would suggest that whatever public pressure could be brought to bear to prevent that church from being built would not only be appropriate, it would be a duty and a public service to civilized people everywhere.

Calling All Moderate Muslims...

He points out that the media has been fooled before when it comes to declaring some high-profile Muslim a "moderate."

First there was Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki, who was declared by the New York Times as a leader capable of "merging East and West." That was 2001 right before the 9/11 attacks. Two of the 11 hijackers worshiped at his mosque. Furthermore, Al-Awlaki mentored the Christmas Day bomber and Fort Hood killer Nidal Malik Hason. President Obama has since authorized the military to assassinate Awlaki. Some moderate.

Then there was Aasiya Hassan, the architect, who along with his wife in 2004 started his own Muslim television network to build "bridges" between their culture and the West because they were so disturbed by the negative images of Muslims in our country. Mr. Hassan would later cut off his wife's head for daring to divorce him.

The latest moderate celebrated in the press is Feisal Abdul Rauf is the man behind the building of the so-called Ground Zero mosque to built in what used to be the shadow of the World Trade Center. Yet Rauf called the U.S. an accomplice in the attack against it. And refuses to acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist organization. Some moderate.

Stephen's concludes his excellent piece:

As for the professional charlatans and secret radicals who claim to be moderate, it would be well if their cheerleaders in the media could inspect their credentials a little more carefully before lavishing them with praise. Because, when it comes to heralding the arrival of the long-awaited moderates, there's nothing more embarrassing than a case of premature congratulation.

Stephen's notes there are plenty of true Muslim moderates, people who understand the evil danger posed by the radical strain of Islam, the one that condones terrorism, that it needs to be stamped out. It is these worshippers of Islam, we should be listening to and lauding. Not the fraudulent "bridge builders" who can't point to a terrorist organization and call it what it is.

Oh, the Rangeled Webs We Weave...

Robert Costa's piece on Charlie Rangel's attempt to hang on to his congressional seat is worth reading if only to hear from his GOP challenger, former Jets receiver Rev. Michel Faulkner.

Costa writes:

Mr. Faulkner admits that his odds are long: The district is one of the bluest in the nation. But he believes saying a conservative can't win in Harlem "is succumbing to the liberal-media bent." "The liberals don't want to dare fathom that I could win this. Think about it: I'm more than a conservative and a Republican: I'm a black man that loves America. And I love God. So I'm dangerous. They don't know how to deal with me."

Indeed, I wonder: Why not you? What does Rangel do better? "He knows how to steal," Mr. Faulkner says. "But he's not very good at it."

Job-Gate Revived by Clinton's Denial

Bill Clinton is suddenly denying that he ever tried to get Joe Sestak to drop out of the senate primary against Arlen Specter. This is odd. Especially given the White House line back in April that Mr. Clinton was used as a go between to offer Sestak an unpaid White House advisory position to keep the field clear for Specter. Sestak, however, said he was offered a big "job" to drop out of the race.

The former president was campaigning for Joe in Scranton this past week when someone with a video camera asked him why he was campaigning for Joe after trying to get him to drop out of the race.

The answer should have been a simple: Because I know Joe, he's a good Democrat and he'll make a great Senator. Or simple silence.

Instead, Clinton muddies the water all over again, raising questions about who's telling the truth about what sort of politicking the Obama Administration engaged in last year.

Either Clinton isn't telling the truth now, or the White House wasn't telling the truth then. And nevermind that Sesak's explosive claim of a "job" offer doesn't fit with the White House's implausible story of him being offered an unpaid advisory position through Mr. Clinton.

Penn Delco's Countersuit is Counter Smart

The Penn Delco School Board is less a board than it is a theme park of stupidity and pettiness. It's countersuit against the Aston Valley Baseball League seeking monetary damages proves it.

There is no reason this matter shouldn't have been settled months ago. Instead the board is spending thousands of taxpayer dollars to beat the little league in court. Win or lose there is no reasonable justification for the board's behavior in this matter.

The league had a long term lease on a piece of school district property. Its volunteers build a baseball field on it so they would have a place for its kids to play for decades. For some reason the board, under the guidance of its new solicitor, decided to cancel the lease and take control of the field away the people who built it and not compensate them for their improvements to the property as required by the lease.

The solicitor argues that the lease was improperly entered into by a previous board and the current board should not be held to its terms. Whatever the legal merits of that argument, the board was under no legal obligation to cancel the lease, it simply did so for what the solicitor called "good government practice" reasons.

But the AVBL entered into the lease in good faith. Upon its terms it built the field, added value to the property while providing a place for the high school baseball team to play it's games and all at no cost to the district.

In its countersuit the district is now claiming the league didn't adhere to certain codes and standards in making improvements at the field. The district's claims reek of bad faith given they are being made long after its decision to take control of the field. Prior to the school board's decision to cancel the lease, the district raised no concerns with the league about any maintenance or construction issues. The superintendent admitted as much to me last year.

It is hard to believe a judge or jury won't recognize some injury to the league in the district's canceling of the lease without just compensation, and the bad faith of the school board's countersuit.

The best remedy for all this, absent the board coming to its senses (and there is basically no hope of that) is for the citizens of the district to vote in new school board members who have a better understanding of their duties and obligations to community at large.

Penn Delco has a recent history of being run by meglomaniacs and criminals. This is nothing like that. This is just dumb. But dumb isn't good either.

Phils Stage Wild Comeback

Two View on The Mosque at Ground Zero

Park51, a k a Cordoba House, won't be a mosque; it will be a $100 million, thirteen-story cultural center with a pool, gym, auditorium and prayer room. It won't be at Ground Zero; it will be two blocks away. (By the way, two mosques have existed in the neighborhood for years.) It won't be a shadowy storefront where radical clerics recruit young suicide bombers; it will be a showplace of moderate Islam, an Islam for the pluralist West—the very thing wise heads in the United States and Europe agree is essential to integrate Muslim immigrants and prevent them from becoming fundamentalists and even terrorists. "It's a shame we even have to talk about this," says Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a longtime supporter of the project.

A place is made sacred by a widespread belief that it was visited by the miraculous or the transcendent (Lourdes, the Temple Mount), by the presence there once of great nobility and sacrifice (Gettysburg), or by the blood of martyrs and the indescribable suffering of the innocent (Auschwitz).

When we speak of Ground Zero as hallowed ground, what we mean is that it belongs to those who suffered and died there -- and that such ownership obliges us, the living, to preserve the dignity and memory of the place, never allowing it to be forgotten, trivialized or misappropriated.

Donald Duck: Masher?

According to the suit, Magolon was holding her child and seeking an autograph when the duck groped her breast.

Two questions: What sort of person asks a mascot for an autograph? How did she expect the Donald to hold a pen in those big clothy hands?

According to the story:

Magolon claims she was so traumatized by the incident that she can no longer work.

She claims the alleged incident has caused her to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, flashbacks, nausea, cold sweats, insomnia, nightmares and digestive problems that are preventing her from attending her usual duties and occupation, causing her great financial detriment and loss. According to the lawsuit, she believes her injuries are permanent.

She is seeking in excess of $50,000.

The story brings to mind an old joke:

Q: Why did Mickey Mouse divorce Minnie? A: Because she was f---ing Goofy.

Oh Stewardess?

UPDATE: More passengers are coming forward to say that Slater was behaving strangely the entire flight. Rather than being provoked by an insulting passenger, Slater was the instigator of most of the trouble.

Thomas Frank Pulls a Slater

Thomas Frank offers a graceless goodbye to the Wall Street Journal after just two years. He'd hoped the world would take his left-wing views more seriously.

Where I most expected changes, though, was in the world of professional punditry, which had largely failed to raise questions about the disaster as it loomed. Today it's two years on, and nobody has changed the water in the fish tank, as a friend of mine likes to say. Thomas Friedman of the New York Times still burbles about theories of creativity that were management clichés 10 years ago. The Washington Post prosecutes its undeclared war on Social Security by having former TARP czar Neel Kashkari explain why banks had to be bailed out but "entitlements must be cut." The need to balance the federal budget is almost universally thought to be urgent. And bipartisanship still intoxicates the pundit mind with its awesome majesty.

On Wall Street, the road to hell is still lined with bonuses. And Washington feels the same as ever. The prosperous, well-educated people still tote their yoga mats around town, line up outside the special cupcake shops, and listen to NPR talk show hosts welcome the next generation of boring centrists into the glorious circle of the right-thinking. The lobbyists still gather at the tasteful restaurants du jour, doing their work on behalf of the forgotten men of the uppermost one percent.

As for me, it's two cans of beer and the escape chute to terra firma. Goodbye and good luck.

Sound like he he got hit on the head by a piece of luggage. Hope he has a friend at home to console him.

Lentz Stonewall Continues

Democrat Bryan Lentz continues to avoid answering a direct question about his campaign being involved in collecting signatures to get a conservative spoiler on the ballot as a political ploy to siphon votes from Republican Pat Meehan. He won't answer the question because it would reveal him to be the very sort of politician he claims to abhor.

He continuously describes Meehan as the "Tea Party" candidate, which is about as accurate as someone calling Lentz the "pro-child-prostitution ACORN" candidate.

It's become apparent that Lentz is now locked into this strategy of refusing to admit the truth. Just like Joe Sestak for months refused to answer questions about who supposedly offered him a White House job to stay of Democratic primary for Senate, he finally had to answer that question for better or for worse. (Worse, actually because the allegedly job offered wasn't a job at all.)

Lentz can continue his stonewalling and evasion but every time he does he reinforces his new and growing reputation for sophistry and political cynicism.

Public Employee Unions: Too Big To Fail

There they go again, Democrats finding money to bail out teachers and other members of public employee unions who overwhelmingly vote Democratic. It's almost enough to make you skeptical about the motives of our pubic servants.

Coffee, Tea or Me?

After a tough flight and a run-in with a passenger, a Jet Blue flight attendent decides to change careers.

A flight attendant ran out of patience on a plane that just landed at JFK on Monday afternoon, so he allegedly cursed a blue streak over the p.a. system, grabbed some beers, pulled the emergency chute, slid down and ran from the plane, sources said.

What he will do now, after answering all the charges against him, is anybody's guess. I'm thinking something having to do with the theater.

UPDATE: According to the story: "

Slater was later arrested at his home in Belle Harbor by Port Authority officials. Police sources said that when authorities found Slater he seemed to be in the midst having sexual relations."

Nothing like sliding off the job and being pursued by cops to put one in the mood.

Happy Anniversary?

I hope Japan has learned the appropriate lessons from being atomic bombed, though, which is: Be sweet. If you’re nice and sweet to everyone, you don’t get atomic bombed. But if you’re mean, then boom! So be sweet.

And yet, is it really discourteous to boo a recorded message? If the president had gone to the jamboree in person, I bet he would have received a very friendly and enthusiastic greeting.

Nevermind, that as a politician, President Obama himself has hardly lived to many of the traits scouts endeavor to embody. After all, he hasn't been very "Thifty" when it comes to the national credit card...

or "Friendly, Courteous" or "Kind" to the opposition party...

or "Obedient" to the will of the people when it comes to healthcare and spending...

or "Brave" when it comes to not overreacting to snippets on conservatives Web sites...

or "Loyal" to the Independents who voted for him because as a candidate he portrayed himself to be a centrist...

or "Reverent" when it came to not throwing his own reverend under the bus when he became a political embarrassment...

or "Helpful" to moderate Democrats, who are going to lose their seats this November because of being forced to support his Big Government agenda...

or even "Clean," especially when you see him cavorting at fundraisers for Chicago pols who have been tied to mobsters and failed banks.

The Cost of Hiring

A life in business is filled with uncertainties, but I can be quite sure that every time I hire someone my obligations to the government go up. From where I sit, the government's message is unmistakable: Creating a new job carries a punishing price.

Lentz Snentz

Bryan Lentz and his campaign crossed over to the dark side when they quietly went about supporting the candidancy of a Birther/Truther in a cynical attempt to draw votes away from Pat Meehan. My Sunday print column is up.

Scroll the comments to find a response from Jim "Ironclad" Schneller, the man whose candidancy was supported by Lentz' minions.

The Vain In Spain Have No Shame

[Posted By Jake]

This has been a wonderful summer for American royalty. First, the million dollar vegan, gluten-free wedding of Chelsea Clinton to Marc Mezvinsky, crown prince of a notorious Democrat political clan. And now the Michelle Antoinette vacation to Costa del Sol in Spain, another fabulous million dollar extravaganza to entertain the masses as they tighten their belts to stave off foreclosure.

Kind of makes the legendary liberal kerfluffle over Nancy Reagan's china look pretty silly, especially since all purchase costs came from donations to the White House Foundation, not the taxpayer's dime, like Michelle's excellent adventure.

Let's run the numbers. Apparently, the First Lady's room at the five star Hotel Villa Padierna, rated one of the top hotels in the world, is $6000 a night. The rest of her party requires 60 of the hotel's 129 rooms, averaging $1000 a night. There's the plane, an Air Force version of a 757, which will run about $200,000 for the trip. There is also the Secret Service detail which could number 70 agents, probably with expenses and per diems, another $200,000. Meals have been quite lavish, with sea bass tartare, strawberry gazpacho,and of course lobster, so you're looking at another $100,000 easily. The day trips to Moorish castles, the 14-car caravan from the airport, the anticipated caravan to visit the Spanish King and Queen, the cost of closing off a public beach for Michelle and her entourage, and on and on. No matter how you figure it, this is a million dollar junket, and then some.

It's said that President of the United States is the hardest job in the world, and he is entitled to a nice vacation...right? Yes, except for the minor detail that the Commander-in-Chief who has been busy bungling us into economic catastrophe wasn't even invited on this Spanish boondoggle. No matter that it was (birther alert) allegedly her husband's well-publicized birthday, Michelle decided to travel alone, limiting herself to only the lords and ladies of court, while poor Barack had to find comfort in the arms of Oprah and his Chicago cronies.

But not to worry, our fearless leader is managing his Presidential stress quite well. Most days, he straggles into the Oval Office around 10AM. Previous holidays this summer include Los Angeles in June, Maine a couple of weeks ago, the Gulf Coast next weekend, and Martha's Vineyard later on this month. At this rate, Botox Nancy is going to have to convene another special session of our spendthrift Congress just to bailout the Obama lifestyle.

The important thing that all we little people have to remember is that there never is a recession for royalty. No bread? Let them eat cake.

Lamgooning the Speaker

Swamp Thing

Good stuff from Dan Henninger on Charlie Rangel and his fellow "great guys":

Nancy Pelosi keeps talking about how she was going to "drain the swamp." This is unfair to swamps. Like politics, a swamp is a complex ecosystem. It may smell at times, but the smell has a biological purpose. Politicians aren't meadowlarks and butterflies. Everyone knows that. They slither and coil and provide crude balance to the ecosystem. If we "drained the swamp," everything would die.

Political Monkey Business

So the litigious birther/truther James Schneller of Wayne will now be on the ballot in the race for the U.S. House seat for the 7th District. He got there with the apparent help of at least some Democratic activists collecting signatures, hoping he'll pull enough support away from Republican Pat Meehan to allow Democrat Bryan Lentz to slip into the seat.

In politics this is considered clever. In the real world, it's considered cynical and a little bit sleazy.

Lentz isn't answering any questions about his campaign helping to collect the 4,800 signature to get Schneller on the ballot. David Landau has issued a non-denial denial.

“I can say on the record that the Delaware County Democratic Committee did not authorize, approve, organize or assist in the effort to get Mr. Schneller on the ballot,” he wrote in an e-mail.

What about any of its members? What about any of Lentz' Democratic political supporters?

Having Schneller on the ballot may be a tiny advantage to Democrats. But he so lacks political credibility that its unlikely he'll garner even one percent of the vote. The Tea Partiers aren't interested in him and the more they find out about his penchant for suing people and his wacky 9/11 conspiracy theories, the less interest they will be.

What this loses Lentz is the moral high ground when it comes running against the county GOP machine. He vociferously complained about Meehan campaign volunteers collecting phony signatures to get him on the ballot. Now, he looks like something of a hypocrite for refusing to answer questions about what if any monkey business his supporters engaged in to help him.

Nancy-Boy Lentz On The Loose

[Posted By Jake]

Speaker Pelosi has declared that she has "drained the swamp". No doubt the power of that delusion is why Delaware County Democrat Brian Lentz was so thrilled several weeks ago to have Botox Nancy and Joe "big fu**ing deal" Biden sponsor a fundraiser for his equally delusional run for Congress.

How Lentz can think that America needs more government, more spending and more partisan Nancy-Boys in Washington is beyond comprehension. In the very week that the Speaker misleads the voters about her success in cleaning up government (never mind the Rangel, Waters ethics violations and pending trials), Lentz enlists his personal campaign operatives to circulate petitions of a third-party nutcase. Apparently, any ideas Lentz has about good government don't extend to electoral honesty.

But are we really surprised? Lentz tried unsuccessfully to smear his Republican opponent, former United States Attorney Pat Meehan, over election petitions. Before that, Lentz torpedoed the primary candidacy of a DEMOCRAT for State Representative, who was then forced to mount a write-in campaign to get on the ballot. Since this was a black woman, any Republican would likely have been labeled a racist. For Lentz, we'll just stick to congenitally clueless.

Recent polling by Rasmussen shows a huge gap in perception between the politicians and the people. 67% of the political class thinks that the United States is headed in the right direction, while 84% of mainstream Americans disagree. Obviously, Lentz's dirty tricks and Pelosi's ongoing deceit are on the wrong side of those compelling numbers.

Shirley Sherrod was New Communities Inc. store manager during the 1970s. As such, Mrs. Sherrod was a key member of the NCI administrative team, which exploited and abused the workforce in the field. The 6,000 acre New Communities Inc. in Lee County promoted itself during the latter part of the 1960s and throughout the 70s as a land trust committed to improving the lives of the rural black poor. Underneath this facade, the young and old worked long hours with few breaks, the pay averaged sixty-seven cents an hour, fieldwork behind equipment spraying pesticides was commonplace and workers expressing dissatisfaction were fired without recourse.

Yeah, This Race Talking Thing is Working

Any conservatives who believed that our nation’s unofficial pastime, “All Race All the Time,” would become passé with the election of Barack Obama were proven wrong just minutes into his inauguration. Despite the presence of the racially mixed Obama eagerly awaiting the award of the mighty pen of power, yet another of my former senator’s race-obsessed pastors encouraged white Americans to “embrace what is right.” One would have thought we had already done so, but the joke was on us. It seems justice in the present can never transcend sins of the past. Sins, of course, that none of us alive were alive to commit.

Not even a month into the 44th presidency, Attorney General Eric Holder compounded the insult to rank-and-file Americans by informing us that “in things racial” our country remains “a nation of cowards.” How ironic as were it not for white guiltist neurotics, Obama would still be playing Class A ball in the Illinois senate.

How our country got duped into elevating to the highest office a far leftist whose views are out of touch with those of the average citizen still perplexes, but Mr. Holder must be pleased by the efforts of this particular conservative to address race relations.

Sherrod's Better Half?

Shirley Sherrod's husband appears to be something of a race baiter. Or was this taken out of context too.

Finally, we must stop the white man and his Uncle Tom from stealing our elections. We must not be afraid to vote black and we must not be afraid to turn a black out who votes against our interests.

If Sarah Palin's husband said: "We must stop the black man and his white liberal friends in ACORN from stealing our elections. We must not be afraid to vote white and we must not be afraid to turn out a white who votes against our interests..." I wonder how much news coverage that would get.

Of Nice and Men

Obama is wanting to help small businesses, which has to be pretty scary for them. Obama is a lot like Lenny for Of Mice and Men; he’ll want to pet the puppies, but eventually accidentally crush their necks. At least an advantage of being a small business is that they’ll be more able to hide from Obama. He’ll come into town saying, “Where are the small businesses? I want to hug ‘em and squeeze ‘em and name them George!” But he won’t see any if they’re all hiding well and then he’ll get all sad. Then we try to get Obama to help something we don’t care about, like San Francisco.